Friday, September 26, 2014

More Love-In-A-Puff Wedding Designs

The Love-In-Puff vines at Springwell Gardens will continue to produce lots of lovely tendrils and balloon-like puffs until frost. They are slated to make an appearance at several weddings in October.
They are lovely for bouquet work, but they work great in centerpiece designs. 
Delicate vines swirling in and around flowers with the  glowing green puffs hovering about.
And what happens when you open up one of those little puffs- It's fun to watch the look on a bride's face when she realizes what she sees- The little black seeds say it all....




Saturday, September 13, 2014

Ranunculus and Anemones for Spring Weddings

This will be a busy month! In a addition to some upcoming, lovely weddings, there are of course, garden chores.
Yesterday my shipment of ranunculus and anemone corms came in. These flowers are breathtakingly lovely, and are a favorite of brides! I plan to get the first batch of corms into the garden beds later in the month. I hope to have some Carmel white anemones with dark eyes ready for Kaitlin's December wedding.
The plantings will be staggered a bit. Most of the corms should be in by mid October, but I am still experimenting with putting in a small batch for later springtime blooms. Anemones will start blooming as early as December, and will continue slowly through January. The pace will begin to pick up by late February and continue to gain speed through April.
If the temperatures for winter are normal in 2015, I expect to see the ranunculus blooming by early March.
There will also be other lovely flowers to join them- Hellebore, Winter Honeysuckle and Winter Daphne will begin to bloom in January. And I plan to set aside some protected garden space for lots of pansies. All of these flowers are absolutely fabulous for winter and early springtime bouquets.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Late Summer at Springwell Gardens

September is here and summer is slipping away... well sort of... the days are getting shorter, but the heat and humidity are hanging on. The garden is full and kinda overgrown...
Don't look too closely or you will see there's a bit of mildew on the stems and insect nibbles too...
It's like shabby chic for the outdoors if you ask me. There are still  flowers blooming, but some are slowing down.
It's time to gather blooms for drying for winter designs,
And to keep an eye on the dahlias and sedums that I need for weddings this month and next.
Soon it will be time to start planting corms and bulbs for next season's blooms.
One of these days I hope to have the beds neater and better organized. I will keep you posted on how that goes....